


Lock the Damn Door—The Nate Likes To Watch Job

by crayonbreakygal



Series: Lock the Damn Door [1]
Category: Falling Skies, Leverage
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, F/M, Family, Multi, Romance, Sexual Tension, Team Bonding, Team Free Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 06:28:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8045806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: Nate should have just walked out, but he didn't.  They were beautiful together.  He couldn't look away.  Takes place sometime after season four.





	Lock the Damn Door—The Nate Likes To Watch Job

**Author's Note:**

> Where did this come from? This takes place sometime after season four to line up with the Falling Skies timeline. They have to be in Boston though, so it's AU after that. I most certainly did not go there on every pairing, it's only implied or hopeful on everyone's part. Just looking at the pairings that Nate was imagining and that Sophie was putting into his head. I might continue in this 'verse too since it seems like it might be interesting. That means I'd have to rewatch Falling Skies. Just might happen. One thing I did not do was pair Hardison with Nate or Sophie. One of them just might kill him dead, so no, I didn't go there. He's too pretty with Eliot and Parker.

Lock the Damn Door—The Nate Likes To Watch Job

Takes place any time during or after season four.  They still have to be in Boston for it to happen.  AU!  Divergence with the Falling Skies ‘verse where aliens take over and there’s no tech left.

Nate hadn’t meant to watch, hadn’t meant to walk in on them, but they had other things on their minds, definitely not the fact that Parker and Eliot were half clothed.  Neither had chosen to undress all the way, probably because there wasn’t a bed available for this type of thing right at that moment. Sophie was taking a nap in the only bed that was in the cabin.  It was a nice, big king, but that was beside the point.

Eliot had Parker pinned up against the wall of the storeroom, legs wrapped around his middle. Her pale, creamy thighs were moving against his much darker ones.  There was no doubt in his mind what they were doing.  Only neither one of them was making a sound except for the occasional shuffle of Eliot’s feet when he needed to adjust his thrusting.

Nate knew he should have just walked out, but with the way the storeroom was built onto the back of the cabin, they didn’t see him enter.  He stood, frozen as he watched them.  Dammit, were they extremely hot together. Heat settled down in his groin, making it very uncomfortable. Hardison one time joked about the fact that Nate liked to watch everything that went on around him.  Well, he was right, because right in that instant, he was watching his two teammates, friends, have sex and he couldn’t look away.

Maybe he couldn’t look away because what he was seeing, in his eyes, was beautiful.  He hadn’t realized that the two of them, so different yet so alike, were beautiful together.  Parker’s sigh sent another jolt of lust straight through him, causing his pants to tighten up that much more.  It wouldn’t take more than a few strokes for him to get off on this, but he really didn’t want to explain to them if they heard his movements.

Eliot’s hand was up Parker’s shirt while one of Parker’s hands gripped Eliot’s hair tight. Eliot moved in and out of her as Parker held onto his shoulder with her other hand. He could tell she was almost there when she pushed her feet into his backside, urging him to go faster. Arching back, he knew that Parker had climaxed, mouth open in a silent scream.  Eliot was not long after, burying his face in her shoulder, biting down to make sure he kept quiet.

Nate took that moment to make his exit.  He finally let out the breath he was holding, almost stumbling through the cabin to the front door.  Wrenching it open, he walked out into the whiteness, wanting to cool off before even thinking about what he had just witnessed.

What the hell had he done?  Those were his friends, the people he trusted the most in this crazy, fucked up world.  A world where there wasn’t much left, but this was all he had left.  They wouldn’t take kindly to him watching one of their most intimate moments like a peeping tom. Sitting down on the stairs of the porch, he breathed in the clean, fresh, really cold air of the mountain, attempting to calm his body and his mind so he could think.

This cabin wasn’t his choice, but it was the only choice they’d come up with in the prior weeks.  Everything had gone to shit, the world seemed to be ending, or close to it.  He didn’t even understand it, but there it was.  Aliens.  No way, Hardison had said.  No fucking way, Eliot had finished the thought.  Boston was overrun by aliens.  How cliché.  They hadn’t even taken the time to clear out properly, but had grabbed what they could and ran.  Luckily Hardison always had a backup plan, a safehouse for them to lay low if things went sideways.  And it was cold, damn cold where they had landed.  Going north had been their only safe bet. Stay away from the population centers and they’d be OK, for now.

All electronics were unusable.  At first, Hardison literally cried. Nate had never seen him so upset.  Then he had pulled himself out of his depression when Eliot had found him so old tech, i.e., parts to an old radio so Hardison could tinker.  Eliot and Parker planned salvaging runs like they were planning cons, while Sophie did what she could to help out.  He could tell that she was depressed too, holed up in a cabin without much to do other than read.  She tended to do a lot of that, in addition to talking. She had taken to talking to each one of them, occasionally grabbing a piece of paper to write it all down.  Maybe she was writing the great American novel, or British novel. It kept her somewhat busy.  Nate had taken to tinkering around the cabin, fixing things as Eliot cooked from their stock of food.  And hunting. Eliot was good at that, but had Nate join him several times in his endeavor to make sure they kept up their strength with protein.  Now that it was getting colder though, it might be more difficult to find meat. 

With only a long sleeve shirt, Nate shivered in the cold, but didn’t really want to go back inside just yet.  His body still spasmed, thinking about what the two of them were doing.  It wasn’t like he wasn’t intimate with Sophie, because he was. Something was missing though, something vital.  He just didn’t know what it was.

“Nate, what in hell are you doing out here?” Hardison asked.

“Thinking.”

“Uh, it’s much warmer in here.  You can think in here, you know.”

Does Hardison know?  He never could hide the fact of his affection toward Parker. Did he know what she was doing with Eliot?  Or maybe he’d given the hitter permission?  It was just the five of them. What was he going to do about it?  Ignore what happened and knock on every door the next time?  It wasn’t their fault, it was entirely his.  So why was he having such a visceral reaction to it?

Twenty minutes later, he decided he’d had enough of the cold, so he walked inside. He couldn’t even look at either one of them but luckily both were side by side in the kitchen working on something for dinner.  Sophie came out of the bedroom finally, looking like she’d just roused herself from sleep.  Her hair was everywhere, her clothes skewed just a bit.  She was wrapped in a thick sweater.  They tried to keep the cabin comfortable, but who knew how cold it could get outside in the dead of winter, which hadn’t happened just yet.

“Nate, were you outside?”

“I just, um, stepped out for a moment.”

“For like forty-five minutes.  Crazy ass if you ask me.”

Sophie looked at him strangely, putting her hand to his forehead like he was a small child who might be sick.

“You’re freezing. Come with me.”

He followed her without thought as she led him back to the bedroom.  Pulling the comforter back, she gently pushed him inside and tucked him in.  The shivers hit as soon as she did this.  He hadn’t realized how long he’d been out in the cold until right that instant.

“Dammit, Nate.  You cannot be sick.”

Sophie climbed onto the other side of the bed and slid under the covers with him, taking his hands in hers.  She yelped a little as he touched his feet to hers.  He’d forgotten shoes too.

“What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t.  Just had to cool off is all.”

“Well, you seemed to have accomplished that.  Do you feel alright?”

“Tired.  That’s all.”

And horny as hell too, but he didn’t know how to broach the subject with her on what he saw.  Maybe he’d show her though.  He didn’t want to use her to help with the growing erection that was starting to become painful yet again, but she had wrapped herself around him.

They argued way too much in the last few weeks, almost to the point of not talking to one another.  Sophie had given him the cold shoulder since last night, but now, her hands started to roam, lightly touching him on the back of the neck and where his shirt and pants met on his back.

“We should, um, should we talk about, you know?”

“Obtuse as always.  Talk about what, darling?”

“We may be stuck here for a while.”

“Forever?  I hope not.  Is that what you want to talk about?”

“Partly.”

Her hand slowly made its way around to his stomach, making him flinch a little.  Her knowing smile said it all.

“This too,” he breathed into her.

“My hand?”

“Among other things.”

“You’ve never wanted to talk about sex before.”

He could feel his face flush with her frank statement.  Sure, he wasn’t one to use his words, but this just didn’t have to do with what they were about to do. The others were involved, possibly with each other, with possible repercussions.

“It’s not just about sex, it’s about us, them, what we’re doing.”

“What we’re doing right now has nothing to do with those three people in the other room.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Sophie’s hands stilled on him, although she didn’t remove them entirely.

“What if it’s just us from now on?  Huh?  What are we going to do about that?”

Sophie quirked her eyebrow up, probably knowing where his train of thinking was going.  She usually did, even with just a look from him.

“The three of them are much younger.  I don’t even know the extent of what each of them feel for one another.  Or what they feel for us.”

Nate hadn’t thought about that. He was just thinking about the dynamics of the other three.  Of course, with what he saw, maybe he was thinking about the others.

“I do know what I feel for you.  Don’t mistake that.”

Sophie dove in for a fierce kiss after his pronouncement.  Whether it was a kiss of thanks or possession, he didn’t know or didn’t want to know. 

“So instead of a cold shower, you stuck your head in the snow?”

“Kinda.”

“Saves on the water.”

Nate snorted back, knowing she was probably thinking some of the same thoughts he was.

“So where do we go from here?” he asked her.

“Where do you want it to go?”

“Not sure I’m willing to share.”

Sophie flipped him over and crawled on top.

“Who said you’d have to share?”

“I’m not blind, Soph.”

“You and Parker?”

She pulled her head back to really look at him.

“I didn’t say that.  At this point, I’m not sure what to think.”

“Oh. Oh, oh.  You’re wondering about me, aren’t you?”

And if she hadn’t said that, his thoughts wouldn’t have gone to seeing her, in bed with Eliot, his teeth grazing down her neck, her arching into his hard body as she whimpered for release.  He narrowed his gaze on her, not knowing the words to say what he was thinking.

“I, it’s just.”

“You don’t know how you feel.  I can see that. Neither do I.  Plus, there are only so many condoms we have left.”

Another problem to deal with that he really didn’t want to take on.

“Do you want to have sex with Parker, or possibly one of the others?”

His eyes widened when she had made the suggestion.  He never thought of the other two men in the group that way. Why was she making this so difficult for him to voice?

“We just have to make, whatever it is we’re gonna do.”

“Plans?  Contingencies?  You make it sound like we have to repopulate the world or something.”

“What if we do? Have to you know, have children, make children?  And what about spending all our time together, in this cabin, particularly since it’s gonna get colder, much colder.”

They had taken to sleeping in shifts in the bed, but since it was a king, then three of them could fit comfortably.  Usually though it ended up only being two at a time.

“We could ask,” Sophie suggested.

She still hadn’t moved off of him.  He wasn’t cold anymore, that was a plus.  His fingers lingered over the small of her back, soft to the touch. That was one place where he loved to touch her, if just to reassure her that he was present.  If she was tense or needed him beside her, he’d taken to touching her there no matter where they were. It always seemed to calm her.

“Ask? Like how?”

“Would you object to that? I could ask what each one of them wants.  If there were objections, one person could say no.  I don’t think we want hurt feelings at this juncture.”

“What about you? What do you want?”

Nate was afraid of the answer. He knew that Sophie had always been somewhat adventurous, and that he’d never had the opportunity to be that until he was with her.

“I hadn’t given it any thought.  There’s one thing I don’t want to do.  I don’t want anyone to be uncomfortable.  You know how Hardison gets.  We cannot even hold hands without him commenting.”

“What about Eliot?”

Sophie moved over him, shifting position to get more comfortable.

“Well, he is the only one of us who hasn’t been claimed, or whatever you want to call it.  As I said, not something I had explored.”

“Well, not sure that’s a problem.  He and Parker, well, they…”

Sophie’s eyebrows shot up again. He didn’t think he’d ever shock the grifter with how she had operated her life before.

“Did you see them?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“It’s either yes, I saw them kissing, or yes, I saw them having sex. Which was it?”

“The second one.”

“That’s why you were outside.”

Sophie dropped her mouth to his neck then, placing light kisses as she did. Moving her body over him, she ignited something in him, making him groan as she licked and bit his shoulder.

“You like to watch.”

“I like to do this instead,” he told her.

As Sophie dragged her hand down his side, he dove in for a kiss, thrusting his tongue in roughly. Her hand reached his erection, palming it through his clothes.

“Next time let me watch with you.”

Watching two other people have sex wasn’t supposed to make you horny Nate thought, but it did.  Nate was never one for porn, but this was hotter than that.

“What about watching me and Eliot?  Would that get you off?”

Nate flipped her over and ground his hardness against her.

“How about me and Parker?  Licking, sucking, making each other come.”

Nate practically ripped her clothes off then, realizing that all the images Sophie put in his head were now permanently etched there. Were these her fantasies or was she just saying these things because she thought he’d love to hear them?

As he finally sank into her heat, her wetness, he buried his head in her hair, breathing heavily in and out as he thrust into her.

“What about three of us?  As Eliot pounds into me, you can take him from behind.  Or we could watch, as the other two take Parker, make her scream out.”

An intense heat spread throughout his body as his orgasm slammed into him all at once. Sophie wasn’t far behind because by the arch of her back, she was coming right along with him, squeezing him in her tightness.

“Oh god, Sophie,” he moaned into her shoulder.

“Maybe I should talk dirty more often.”

He laughed now, placing light kisses on her lips as he did.

“Don’t you dare tell them.”

“Oh, I won’t.  They’re a smart bunch.  Let them come to the conclusion on their own.”

Nate didn’t think that any of them would though.  And he was entirely wrong as Sophie did exactly what he had told her not to the next day.

 

“Everyone please sit.  We have something we want to discuss.”

Nate looked at her, like he wanted to ask her what was up.  She pointedly looked at him, telling him with her eyes it was about the topic they had discussed the day before.  His grimace back said it all.  He was not comfortable talking about it right then. Sophie was not going to back down though, once she got something in her head to do.  This all happened nonverbally, as the other three watched the byplay happen in real time.

“Geez, that was intense,” Parker blurted out.

“Nate’s not sure it’s a good idea right at this moment, but I think we need to forge ahead and figure it out.”

“No plan, no way of knowing,” he mumbled to himself.

“Just hold on.  Does this have to do with what we’re gonna do about all this stuff that’s happening?  ‘Cause we ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.  The weather is turning to shit.  We can hunker down for a few months, then once the worst is over, do reconnaissance.”

“Now that sounds like a plan,” Hardison agreed.

Nate’s mind was so wrapped up around the five of them, he hadn’t even thought about what steps they needed to take next.

“That’s all good and whatnot, but I was thinking about us. Our relationships with each other.”

Parker tilted her head toward Sophie, like she was thinking of something to say.  Oh damn, she’s going to come out with something off the wall or actually tell them exactly what he was thinking.  She sometimes did that, usually shocking the rest of them.

“Oh, you guys wanna talk about sex.”

And there he made his point. Sophie smacked her lips together, watching each of their reactions.  Nate watched as Eliot eyed Parker, almost like he was possibly reliving what they did in the storeroom yesterday.  Hardison’s eyes went wide, probably trying to think of something to say that they shouldn’t really talk about this.  Parker looked somewhat eager, which worried Nate yet again.  Sophie just looked serene then, willing to figure this out.  He hoped that she could help them figure it out.  The tension was killing him.

“Well, partially.”

“Uh, woah.”

Hardison was freaking.  That was the word Nate would have used.

“We should worry about the condom supply,” Eliot started.

“Oh geez.  That’s an easy one,” Parker said, making Hardison’s eyes now bulge.  “I counted.  There’s one hundred, sixty seven.”

“One, one hundred and sixty seven?” Hardison stuttered.

Even Nate was amazed about that number.

“So if you have 90 days, probably how long the cold is gonna last, one hundred and sixty seven condoms, that’s approximately twice a day, or a little less.  Take into account those times of the month, because hey, Sophie and I are girls, so come on.  I guess it just depends on how many times people wanna screw.”

Nate had to shake his head at her calculations and why she was doing them in the first place.  Even Sophie didn’t have anything to say about her thoughts on the matter. 

“Um, yeah, Parker.  About that. Nice calculations, by the way.  I think what Sophie is getting at is what is gonna make everyone feel comfortable.”  Eliot was actually making sense. Maybe he should turn all this over to the hitter instead.

“Hardison, you need to breathe.”

Sophie thumped him on the back. 

“I’m breathin’.  I am.  Just shocked my system there a little bit is all. Why are we talkin’ about this?”

“Because it’s a concern that we all have.”

“I love you all,” Parker said, eyes bright.

The one that this invasion had affected the most had been Parker.  She often got quiet, didn’t say anything, especially in the early days, when they were running for their lives.  She had to take on some tasks that Nate normally would have asked Eliot to take on, but there was only one Eliot to go around.

“And we love you too, Parker,” Sophie shot back.  “I just, we just understand that there will be times when we want comfort or closeness.  I don’t think that anyone here wants to feel left out.”

“And we have to worry about contraception, if that’s where we’re going with this,” Eliot reminded everyone.

Always with the eyes thinking forward, Nate thought.

“Nate, are you going to be jealous?”

Nate shot Eliot a look, like he wanted Eliot to not go there, but knew at some point he would.

“Listen, I know you.  I know your feelings for Sophie.  Ain’t nobody gonna deny that.”

“I have a mind of my own, Eliot,” Sophie reminded the hitter.  “But Eliot is right.  And Parker is right also.  We all do love each other.  We each will do what we feel comfortable doing.  And if someone else is hurting, we need to figure that out and acknowledge it.”

“So if I wanna have sex with Sophie, you’re not gonna attack me, Nate?”

Eliot was really attempting to push his buttons. This is why he didn’t want to have this frank discussion with them.  If it wasn’t Parker and her need for saying exactly what she meant, it was Eliot pushing the envelope or Hardison freaking out over minor things.

“Might.”

“Can I watch? I mean, not Nate punching Eliot because that would never happen.”

“No one’s punching anyone.  What did I tell you, Nate?”

He didn’t remember Sophie telling him not to be jealous.

“Hey, what if it was me and Sophie?  Would you be jealous? Hey, Soph, what if it was me and Nate? Or Eliot and Nate?”

Nate almost spilled his coffee down his front when Parker said the last statement.  Sophie’s eyebrow shot up, telling him to behave.

“This is why we’re talking about it now.  So we don’t punch first,” Nate started.

“And ask questions later,” Eliot finished.

Hardison dropped his head in his hands, hiding his face.

“Hardison? What do you think?”

Sophie was right.  He was the only one that hadn’t expressed a real opinion except for his exclamation at the beginning.

“I’m just confused.  I just don’t want anyone to be hurt is all. Y’all mean everything to me.  Isn’t that enough, to keep us together no matter who spends what time in the bedroom together?”

Hardison was right, dead on right.  Their relationships with each other changed the moment the world had started to turn on its axis.

“It’s just, I don’t have as much experience in anything. I’m afraid all y’all will leave me in the dust.”

Sophie got up and sat down at Hardison’s feet, taking his hands in hers.  The contrast was amazing. Her small, delicate hands, fingers pale, in his dark hands, large, but gentle for the most part.  Nate wanted to reach over and take a hand of each of them, to make sure they all knew this was just going to have to take time and possibly more talking before things would settle down.

“No one is going to leave you in the dust. The fact that we are all older than you is the only factor.  Anything you need to ask, anything you need from us, we’re there.  And if you feel uncomfortable with anything, then you have to say so. No one is going to make you be a part of something you don’t want.  I’m not even sure that the dynamics are going to change at all.”

“I still want to see Sophie naked.”

“Parker,” they all said in unison.

“Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it.”

“Well, yeah,” Eliot answered back.

“Sorta,” Hardison acknowledged.

“And I’m not sure I want any one of you to see that,” Sophie added.

Parker turned and grabbed Hardison’s other hand and squeezed tight.

“I also wanna see Hardison naked.”’

Parker and Hardison hadn’t made that step yet?  Huh, Nate thought. No wonder he was nervous.

“Man, are you crazy? Have at it.  Not like there’s much of anything else to do,” Eliot pointed out.

“Do you need for Eliot to give you pointers?” Parker asked Hardison.

“Pointers?”

“Hardison, you’re not a virgin, are you?” Sophie asked delicately.

“No,” he answered back vehemently.

How had this conversation gone the way it had? Not what Nate had envisioned.

“Come on, let’s go,” Parker said as she stood.

“Now, Park, Parker. Just wait.”

“You don’t understand. I can’t climb. I can’t steal. I can’t do anything other than sit here. Just give me something to do.”

Parker looked a little frantic now, like she was so on edge it started to scare Nate.

“Parker, this conversation.  That was not the intention, to make you feel like it was your place, to, to…” Nate couldn’t finish the thought.

“But I might be good at it.  I can make everyone feel Ok.  I can’t do anything else right now.”

“God, Parker.  You are not a whore.  Do you understand?”

Eliot had hit a very sore spot with Parker.  Unshed tears threatened to spill out.  Now this was what Nate was talking about.  She was taking all of this the wrong way.

“I just want to make sure you all still love me, even though I can’t do what I’m supposed to do.”

“Of course we still love you.  It’s not what you do, what your job is, Parker.  It never was,” Sophie explained.

“But if I was good at it, then I’d have a job in the group.”

Eliot stood up, upset that Parker was even thinking of herself that way.

“Is that what you thought yesterday?  Is that why you…?”

Hardison looked between the two.

“Did you two?  Oh.”

And the hurt feelings started to pile up.  This was what Nate was worried about.

“Hardison, don’t you start.  I just wanted to make her feel. You know that I love her and you.  You know that. Don’t give me that crap.  Not now.”

“You love me?” Hardison repeated what Eliot had said.

“Yes, dammit.  I also happen to love Sophie too.  Nate, not so much when he’s being a bastard, but there it is.  I cannot live without any of you.  She needed me yesterday, Ok?”

Sophie’s head spun from one person to another, stopping on Nate with eyes wide.  Now he really didn’t know what to think.

“You’re not thinking of me, you know, that way are you?  Because if you are, I’m, well…,” Hardison fumbled out.

“No, I mean, I don’t know.  It’s just all so confusing.  I don’t know.  Maybe.”

“Ha.  I knew it,” Parker shouted.

“No, you don’t know anything.”

“Nuh uh.  Oh no you don’t.”

“Prudes, the both of you,” Parker concluded. “How about a threesome? I mean, one on one side, one on the other.  That might be fun.”

“We’ve created a monster,” Nate pointed out.

Eliot was eyeing Hardison while Hardison’s mouth was open, nothing coming out.

“Might be fun to watch,” Sophie said, immediately putting her hand over her mouth.

“Just like Nate did yesterday with us,” Parker told the group.

All of them stood at the exact same moment and eyed him, with Eliot’s face turning a bit red, Parker’s a bit pink, Hardison glaring at him and Sophie smirking.

“You didn’t lock the door.”

“There’s no lock on that door.”

“Oh right,” Nate said as he watched Eliot cross his arms over his chest.

“Then he ravished me after spending time outside to cool off. I’d say win-win all around.”

“So now we’ve concluded that Nate likes to watch,” Parker started.

“We all knew that,” every one of them answered back.

“That Sophie likes to be ravished, that Hardison would like more experience and that Eliot couldn’t find the lock on the storeroom door.”

“I didn’t find one.”

“Beside the point.”

“Nate could give Hardison pointers if he watched?”

Parker was taking this all too seriously crazy, but she might have a point, not that Nate wanted to watch and actually say anything.

“Or Hardison could watch us and Nate could give him pointers after,” Sophie suggested.

“Might work,” Parker said as she took Sophie’s hand in hers.

“Y’all planned this, didn’t you?”

Both Sophie and Parker looked at each other and laughed.

“Well, it did get all of you talking about what everyone wants.  So yes, we did plan it out somewhat.  The “we” in the we want to know wasn’t Nate, you know.”

So the ladies made the plan and implemented it to figure out how to make them all feel a bit more comfortable.

“So where do we go from here?” Nate finally asked the group.

“Dunno,” Eliot answered first.

“I feel like I need to go outside.”

Sophie was right.  He was feeling a bit hot under the collar.  Parker’s cheeks were still bright pink.

“I still wanna see Sophie naked.”

“Parker.”

“Oh bloody hell.  Alright.”

The three men didn’t say anything as Sophie stripped down to her underwear.

“Is this a good idea, Soph?” he asked her.

Hardison just shook his head yes while Eliot smiled.

“How many times have all of you seen Parker?”

“Seven.”

“Eight.”

“Six.”

“None,” Nate finally answered.  “Until yesterday that is.”

“Parker, you are not thinking that your job is to make us all feel better.  You do what feels right.  Do you understand?” Eliot told the thief.

“Ok,” she answered back as she whipped her top off.

“Ok, maybe that’s enough stripping,” Nate pointed out as Parker’s pants were dropped too.

Eliot’s shirt flew through the air while Hardison’s hoodie landed at his feet.  Pants were gone in an instant, leaving them all standing there in their underwear, all except Nate.

“Nate, forgetting something.”

“Maybe he’s got his tighty whiteys on and is embarrassed.”

“Or maybe no underwear at all,” Parker said.

Parker reached over to poke him in the stomach.  Then Eliot did the same as Sophie reached for his shirt.

“Alright, alright.  Dammit.”

After he was stripped down to his underwear, they all stopped and looked. Every single one of them.

“You’re old.”

“Damn, he almost has as many scars as I do.”

“There’s curly hair everywhere.”

Nate marched to the door and opened it, walking outside into the cold.

“Nate, it’s cold out there.”

“Yep. Kinda know.”

They all followed him out, watching as he gathered a bit of snow in his hands, hitting Eliot directly on the chest as he threw it.

“Oh, this means war.”

“This means frostbite.”

But they all joined in, throwing snow until they started to shake.

Afterwards, that night, the bed was now full. Thank goodness it was a king, because they all piled in it, Nate on one end, Hardison on the other, Eliot in the middle because he generated the most heat and that’s where the women wanted him to be. Nate just hoped that one of them didn’t kick him so he’d fall out of bed. Sophie tucked the covers around him to make sure he stayed where he was.

“That was weird,” he whispered into her ear.

“Definitely one of the weirder encounters I’ve had.”

“Shh,” Eliot said as he rolled over and placed his hand across Sophie’s middle.

Then Nate saw a leg come over Eliot under the blanket, probably Parker’s. A large hand reached to touch Eliot’s hair, gently moving his way through it.  Nate buried his head in Sophie’s hair, trying not to laugh at the sight of them all snuggled onto one big bed.

“I am not participating in an orgy,” he announced.

“Orgy?  Who said anything about an orgy?” Eliot answered.

“Whoa.  What?  Huh?”

“Could be fun?” Sophie pointed out.

“I wanna be in the middle,” Parker said sleepily.

“Go to sleep,” Nate finally said.

A few grumblings were heard, but the rest of them settled down. Only Nate lay awake, wondering what in the hell he was thinking yesterday by watching.  Hey, at least it brought them closer together.  Sophie rolled, spooning against his front, as Eliot’s hand connected with his side. Parker’s hand came over Eliot’s side, her spooning him, with Hardison’s large hand coming to cover both Eliot and Parker.

Nate almost groaned in frustration.  Nothing he could do about what he was feeling right that instant.  As he drifted off to sleep, he realized that no matter what, each of the people now snuggling in the cold room actually loved him.  It may not be romantic, but it definitely was real.


End file.
